Recovery, aka Back To It!

I don't gush enough about my loving husband, so this is mostly an excuse share a couple fun pictures from when he took over parental duties during my recovery from surgery.

Included are pictures of him being the poster boy for stay-home-dad homemaker/homeschooler. Peter definitely inherited his mom's teaching gene, whereas I, decidedly, did not (even though my mom was also a teacher). I think it skipped a generation. I can manage short spurts, but I'm the worst when it comes to buckling down and doing anything - playing, crafting, pretending, tutoring, baking - with our kids for an extended period of time. I work much better away from the kids. Anyway, Peter naturally does a lot of educational stuff with the kids, like managing to rope us into conversations at dinner about anything from current events or physics to geography and the historical significance of a date. When he was little, Peter's mom had these books called "What your ____ Grader Needs to Know" for every grade; big surprise when they started showing up at our door in Amazon packaging so Peter could teach our kids the same. Marie says they're booorrrring but I've caught her reading them on her own a few times, ha. She appears to like the section on art best so far. 

Well, when taking off "work" so I could recover, teacher Peter put me to shame by doing all sorts of fun unschooling-ish stuff with Ethan while I sat on the couch and watched, the most fun being working on currency by playing The Allowance Game. Like, the whole thing, not a cheater version as I would've done.

On top of Ethan-schooling, I watched Peter plow through dishes, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, and also manage carpool and free time. In a normal day, I only seem to manage about one big chore a day plus dinner. Maybe an occasional load of laundry too. Clearly we know who's the obvious choice in our family for stay-at-home parenthood. He would go for it too, if he weren't the one with all the degrees that make the Gs...

As for me, a few brief updates on my physical recovery for those interested: it's been exactly one month, and all things considered, I'm doing well. I was worried at first because the site of my chronic pain seemed to flare up pretty quickly after the initial anesthesia/meds wore off, but my doctor seemed confident at my post-op that it was likely the internal sutures they had to use because of the larger incision required on that side. I still have a little bit of pain, but it seems to be dissipating gradually - so hopefully that means my doc was right.

I definitely felt older this time in terms of my ability to bounce back. I was pretty exhausted the first two weeks - I overdid it a bit in the beginning, so I tried to slow down a little...but then went to drill a week after the surgery so I wouldn't get too far behind on work. It was an important weekend for me to be there, but that about did me in. I also had a rough go for two weeks with more food/digestive issues (it was a bad, bad day when I accidentally ate something with onions; it seems like my food intolerance reactions are getting exponentially worse) so that made for more exhaustion. But the past two weeks I've been pretty stable - I started a digestive enzyme and have been very, very diligent about taking it with the priobiotic my doctor prescribed and checking ingredients like a hawk, which has seemed to help. I still have a colonoscopy to schedule and look forward to (blerrrrrrrrg) based on my doctor's orders, but until then hopefully I'll be able to keep things stable.

But now for the total good news: starting week three when I was physically up to it, I finally carved out the me time I've been planning for a month or two now and suffered through my first barre class!

I've been looking for some sort of workout that I don't hate (read: anything with running or big weights) that's low-impact enough for my torn-up shoulders and bum knee (thanks gymnastics and diving) BUT still can help me build up my strength and endurance to my glory days - or at least get me out of my current weakling state. Sounds like the unicorn of fitness, right? Back in July though, a friend told me about a barre studio that she loves, and how it helps with core strength and toning and posture while being a good workout. And then I found out said stuido is literally in the same block as another location that I already frequent at least weekly, so I decided to sign up for a class.

And woah, buddy. The first class was a total everything-kicker [no really, like every single muscle group plus secret muscle groups that apparently only crazy barre instructors know about]. But it was so fun and I loved it. I've been to three more classes already, and have worked out my schedule so I can now go twice a week. The exercises are such small but targeted movements that I only had to modify one exercise during the first class because of my surgery and every class since then has been a-okay. Minus the ridiculous hobbling around afterwards because my entire body is in muscle failure. But it's in the best, most fun, total-self-care way possible. I dare you to find a studio and try it so you can say I told you so. I've been surprised at the spectrum of ages I've seen at the studio too - a few people younger than me and also a fair amount who are significantly older than me. (All who could probably kick my derriere-in-training--for now). Alright, enough jabber...but after being in such a long slump, I'm happy to finally feel like a more energized version of me, and that I've committed to something I'm both excited about and proud of myself for doing - all within a month of my surgery. It's good to be back.

I'll end with a fun anecdote: at work this past weekend I told two of my Army reserve girlfriends that I started a barre class. The younger one blurted out "you mean like bartending???" and the older one simultaneously said "like, to be a lawyer?!"

I'm really not sure which once is closest to the complete opposite of who I am...

Trying to look like I'm not dying after my first class.

Yo Adrian, I survived! If you're local and you ever wanna be my barre buddy, let me know!